Background: Overweight and obesity, and its high prevalence among adolescents from lower socioeconomic status communities, is a major public health problem. Moreover, the lack of interest in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), specifically for adolescents living in lower socioeconomic status neighorhoods, represent a challenge. As adolescents can be considered the experts of their own behaviour, it is important to work together in designing and implementing interventions. Citizen science is a way to engage young people in the design and delivery of interventions, however, very few studies engaged adolescents on the topics of health.

The Science Engagement to Empower aDolescentS (SEEDS) project aims to engage and empower adolescents from lower socioeconomic status neighbourhoods in designing interventions to promote healthy and active lifestyles, and to seed interest in STEM.

Methods: The SEEDS project will run in four countries (Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom) and will be evaluated by means of a cluster randomised control trial (RCT). Six to eight high-schools from lower socioeconomic status neighbourhoods will be recruited in each country, and adolescents aged 13 to 15 years are our target population. Schools will be randomised into intervention and control schools. In each country, 15 adolescents from the intervention schools called ambassadors will be recruited. Ambassadors will be engaged throughout the project. Focus groups with ambassadors and stakeholders will concentrate on healthy and active living and STEM interest. Supported by stakeholders, ambassadors and their peers will co-create an intervention inspired by the issues raised in the focus groups during a Makeathon event. The resultant intervention will be implemented in intervention high-schools. The impact of these interventions will be evaluated. In total, we aim to recruit 1,440 adolescents who will complete questionnaires related to healthy and active living and STEM interest in baseline (November 2021) and after the six months (June 2022).

Results: The SEEDS study aims to advance in the field of behavioural science by collaborating with adolescents from lower socioeconomic status communities, and empowering them to make a change towards a healthy and active lifestyle. Results of the SEEDS project are expected by the end of 2022.

Methods: High-schools in lower socioeconomic status neighbourhoods were recruited and randomised into intervention and control schools in Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. A qualitative study using focus group discussions within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour was employed. From June to September 2021, eight focus groups were conducted with 36 adolescents aged 13 to 15 years from intervention high-schools. We also conducted six focus groups with 28 stakeholders. Depending on the key behaviours adolescents wanted to address during the intervention phase, stakeholders were invited to participate in focus group sessions. The Quadruple Helix model was used to invite stakeholders from the government, community, business, and academia. Focus groups with  ambassadors and stakeholders had an average duration of 68 min. All focus groups were held in the native language, audio-recorded, transcribed and translated into English. Focus group discussions will be thematically analysed using NVivo software.

Results: During the conference, we will reflect on the main outcomes of the focus groups. The results of the focus groups are already being used to inform the intervention phase of the SEEDS project.

Background: The Science Engagement to Empower aDolescentS (SEEDS) project aims at engaging and empowering adolescents from deprived neighbourhoods in designing interventions to promote healthy and active lifestyles. Within the SEEDS project, Makeathon events will be organised where people from different backgrounds together will work on interventions that meet adolescent’s needs. The experiences adolescents gain through participation in a Makeathon may also seed interest in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), contributing towards an improvement in STEM interest amongst adolescents.

Methods: A published Makeathon protocol has been adapted for the SEEDS Makeathon. COVID-19 protocols have been developed, in case that Makeathons need to take place online. Participating ambassadors were trained in preparation of the Makeathon. In each country, Makeathons were centred around two behaviour change challenges formed by the input from the focus groups; Q1) What experiment would you create to improve snacking and drinking in your school? Q2) What experiment would you create to be more physically active and sit less during the school day? In each Makeathon, teams of student-ambassadors from intervention high-schools aged 13 to 15 years, their peers and stakeholders will create, develop and test interventions. Makeathons will have an average duration of 2.5 hours to 4 hours. At the end of the event, all ideas will be pitched and the group will think of pros and cons. This will support the group to collectively identify the Makeathon interventions that they feel are the strongest. A researcher will record the discussion, to capture outcomes of the events.

Outcomes of the Makeathons will define the interventions and concepts, the number of associated activities, and the ways in which the activities should be implemented. A final decision on what intervention to implement will be discussed in an online exchange and considered collectively by ambassadors of each country, stakeholders and the SEEDS Consortium to identify which interventions will be implemented in each country.

Results: Makeathon events will be run in November 2021, and experiences and outcomes will be discussed during the conference.